CALEDONIA—Four long-time friends in Caledonia will trade the local golf scene for the national stage this fall after earning a slot at the RBC PGA Scramble National Final.
With a recent win at the Southwestern Ontario RBC PGA Scramble Final over 25 competing teams, Nicholas Mulder, Ryan Heeg, Mackenzie Koning, and Josh Prinzen are off to Cabot Cape Breton, Nova Scotia from October 8-10, 2023 where they will have their chance to bring home the glory.
Team member Nicholas Mulder described the chance to win a Canadian National Championship as “absolutely incredible,” relaying the euphoria the team felt after securing their spot, “We honestly couldn’t stop talking about it for hours. And it hasn’t stopped … all week we have been bombarding each other with every video we can find of Cabot Cliffs and Cabot Links,” said Mulder.
The finals will consist of a 54-hole tournament format, with every team made up of four amateur players paired with one Canadian PGA pro player. For the Caledonia team, that pro is Caleb Ellis from the Grand Niagara Golf Course in Port Robinson, Ontario, who first played with the group at the southwestern finals.
He said the scramble golf format tournament appealed to the group when they first heard of it back in March: “We love best ball tournaments and don’t play as much as we used to, so we were all over the idea of trying out a couple of the local qualifiers to see what it would be like. We started looking at some of the scores at the start of the year and saw we would need to score well to have a chance. Did we expect to make it to the national final – absolutely not.”
Scramble golf is a highly popular tournament style that sees a team selecting the best drive off the tee pad, and then following a set of rules for how the rest of the hole plays out. For the RBC Finals, the following rules will apply:
- All team members tee off on every hole, choosing the shot they will use.
- The player who shot the chosen drive may not participate in the next shot.
- Once on the green, all five players have a chance to sink each putt.
- Every team member’s drive must be selected at least three times per round.
Mulder said that their team’s winning strategy focuses on putting PGA pro Ellis front and centre, using his drives wherever possible on par 3s so he is freed up for more approach shots on par 4s and 5s. With the rule that the team must use three tee shots from every player, Mulder said getting a good mix of drives early is crucial, “even if it meant taking a tee shot that wasn’t the best.”
With teamwork and collaboration such a big part of a scramble format, Mulder said predictability and in-depth knowledge of his teammate’s strengths played a big factor in their recent win.
“We certainly took advantage of the fact we have been playing together so long,” he said, noting the team has been playing together at their home course, Southbrook Golf and Country Club in Binbrook, for the last five years. “We know exactly how each of us shoots and this really helped with how windy it was. The first person teeing off would confirm they hit it pure, but the wind still held it back x amount yards and the next guy could adjust.”
Now that they’ve beaten the best in Ontario, emotions are running high as the group of long-time friends prepare to take their unexpected place on the national stage.
“We are just so excited to have a chance to play these courses. It’s not something we would have expected to do at this point in our lives, so we are just really thankful to have that opportunity,” said Mulder. “That being said, we are extremely competitive and once we are on that first tee block our eyes will be on the trophy!”
Mulder added that his only regret is not knowing about the tournament earlier, urging others to check out RBC’s tournament website for details and getting out to compete in a local qualifier next year: “We had never done anything like that before and it turned out to be a really exciting round.”
When asked if the team has plans beyond this year’s finals, Mulder said, “We are just happy to play this amazing sport as much as we can! The fact that we won a trip like this together the first time we took a stab at it is surreal. We will have memories of this trip together for a long time. Realistically, this might be one of those golf trips that can’t ever be beat.”
Good luck to the team. Bring it home to Haldimand, boys!
